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Rules for naming Sonos speakers and rooms

  • 3 August 2018
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Are there are any general rules for naming Sonos speakers and rooms in an environment with Amazon Echo devices and Airplay 2 to avoid issues and conflicts?

I have a Sonos Beam in one room and two Sonos Ones bonded as a stereo pair in another room; in addition, I have an Amazon Echo and an Amazon Echo Dot in two other rooms. I use the Sonos app as well as Airplay 2 to play content.

1. In the Sonos app, I have named the room the Sonos Beam is in "Office" and the room the Sonos Ones are in "Bedroom."

2. In Apple Homekit, I have named the Sonos Beam "Sonos Beam" and placed it in the "Office" room and the Sonos Ones "Right Sonos One" and "Left Sonos One" and placed them in the "Bedroom" room.

3. In Amazon Alexa, in the Alexa Devices setting, I have named the Sonos Beam "Office Sonos" and the Sonos Ones "Right Bedroom Sonos" and "Left Bedroom Sonos." Amazon Alexa automatically created two other Alexa devices named "Office" and "Bedroom" during setup. Under the "Smart Home" setting, Amazon Alexa shows a device named "Office," a device named "Office TV," a device named "Bedroom," and a second device named "Bedroom."

I have noticed that occasionally the names of the rooms in the Sonos App will change on their on their, usually to something like "Sonos Beam" and "Right Sonos One." Similarly, the names of the various speakers in the Amazon Alexa app will also occasionally change on their own.

Are we supposed to ensure that there are no duplications in names for Sonos speakers among the Sonos app, Apple Homekit, and Amazon Alexa? Are there any rules or guidance for naming Sonos speakers in this kind mixed environment?
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Best answer by Ryan S 10 August 2018, 22:20

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3 replies

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
In general, the most important thing is that you don't have name overlaps where two different devices are called the same thing. For example, if your lights are called "Office" and your Sonos One is called "Office", the smart home can get confused which one you're trying to send commands to.

In the Alexa app, you should see all of your Sonos devices listed with the same names that they show up in the Sonos app. The Sonos One and Beam will also be listed a second time, once as a Sonos player and the second time as an Alexa-enabled device. Those names won't be the same.

The only time the name should change in any of those apps would be if the name changes in another, or perhaps if there's some sort of automatic name applied, which shouldn't happen.
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A
I initially found this very confusing when I saw two entries per Sonos product in the Alexa app. It gets worse when you have a household account as it seems to duplicate the Sonos product entry again - so I effectively have three entries per Sonos product in the Alexa app.

What I have done is to rename the Alex-enabled device as “[sonos room name] + Alexa”, so I know which is the Sonos one and which is the Alexa device.
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
I personally use the naming convention Room Name + Device Type for my Smart Home devices, including all Sonos players. e.g. Lounge Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, etc. For Smart Home Lights, I use 'Main' for ceiling lights and 'Background' for other soft lighting. e.g. Lounge Main Lights, Lounge Background Lights. I then create an Alexa Group containing both Lounge Main Lights & Lounge Background Lights called 'Lounge Lights', this makes it easier to turn on or off all the lights within a room with a single command.

I find that this approach makes it a lot easier for occasional users to remember the device names.
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